Robert Simels, the prominent and flamboyant Manhattan defense lawyer, will present himself to a federal prison in Big Spring Texas, sometime today as a result of a 14-year jail sentence handed him on December 4 last by Judge John Gleeson.

But the now disgraced attorney found himself in hot water with the U.S. law while defending convicted Guyanese drug trafficker, Shaheed `Roger’ Khan, and was up to yesterday fighting to avoid having to be behind bars like his fellow clients.

But the Chronicle was last night reliably informed that the Judge has rejected the motion and has advised Simels that he approach the U.S. Appeals Court instead.

Simels was convicted in August of conspiring to bribe and threaten witnesses on behalf of client Khan, and following the sentencing was granted time to spend the festive season with his family.

A Mark Fass of the New York Law journal report yesterday stated that Simels had appealed the sentence and on Monday a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on a motion for bail pending appeal by the veteran defense attorney.

Attorney for Simels, Barry A. Bohrer of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Jason, Anello & Bohrer, contended that Simels’ appeal contained several “substantial questions” entitling Simels to bail under 18 U.S.C. §3143(b), including at least three issues of first impression for the 2nd Circuit.

Most of the 20-minute arguments focused on Gleeson’s decision to allow the government to impeach Simels with jailhouse recordings the judge earlier suppressed as violating Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, the report said.

It added that Bohrer noted that the circuit has never addressed the admissibility of such evidence, and that although the prosecution may now downplay the evidence’s significance, it once argued it was essential.

“The evidence in this case from the beginning of the trial went to the defendant’s credibility,” Bohrer told the panel, which consisted of 2nd Circuit Judges Wilfred Feinberg and Robert A. Katzmann and, sitting by designation, Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Brownell countered that four other circuits have ruled that prosecutors may use evidence suppressed as violative of Title III to impeach a criminal defendant’s testimony, and that no federal court has ruled against it.

A decision on the motion for appeal, according to the report, was expected before Simels was required to present himself to prison.

The report further stated, the Bureau of Prisons rejected Simels request which was conveyed by Judge Gleeson, that he be assigned to the Federal Correctional Facility in Otisville in Orange County, N.Y.